I have been able to stay away from quick loan apps for the longest time ever, but the latest development couldn’t prevent me from getting acquainted with one or two such apps that are dominating the Kenyan FinTech market.
I’d be lying if I said I know much about how these quick loan apps work. In fact, my secret to avoiding loans from these apps is simply staying ignorant about how they work and their existence altogether, much like I do with betting.
However, an interesting tweet about O-Kash and OPesa loan apps caught my attention this morning and consequently, I decided to look a little deeper into the matter and see what’s the rage all about.
Here’s the tweet:
Some loan App called Okash or something sends your contacts texts to tell you to pay back their mobile loan pic.twitter.com/20Le83v0Ds
— Droid (@droid254) April 11, 2019
It’s common knowledge that whenever you borrow money from any lending institution and default on the loan repayment, the lender will come after you. However, it seems O-Kash and OPesa are taking this debt collection exercise to the next level by introducing people in your circle to your financial woes.
Apparently, O-Kash and OPesa will text or call your contacts in the event that you default on your loan repayment. This is just insane, if you ask me. But then again, after reading the Terms and Conditions, I found that this has been well documented.
Going through the terms and conditions of using both apps, I realized that they are one and the same. I couldn’t verify if OPesa is also owned by Opera like in the case of O-Kash, but given they have the same terms and conditions (word for word), it’s likely that they are kinda related in a way or the other.
By agreeing to use O-Kash or OPesa quick loan services:
“You also expressly authorize us to contact your emergency contact to verify your information or when we are unable to contact you or when we have not received a repayment from you. You confirm that your emergency contact has consented to the sharing of his/her information with us and to us contacting them with respect to your use of the Service. In the event we cannot get in contact with you or your emergency contact, you also expressly authorize us to contact any and all persons in your contact list,” reads part of the terms and conditions.
Looking at how unhappy (and surprised) Kenyans are at this move by O-Kash and OPesa (at least by looking at the replies to the above tweet), it’s easy to conclude that most, if not all, who join these lending apps never care to read the terms and conditions in place.
If most of those complaining would have read these terms, they’d probably be using a different loan app or none altogether. But as someone once said, if you want to hide something from Kenyans, put it in writing (or a book for that matter).
What’s your experience using quick loan apps?
